Baba the Turk in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress
Garsington Opera
"Susan Bickley’s flamboyant Baba the Turk... with menacing allure”
Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, July 2008
“Outstanding among the soloists was ...Susan Bickley as an unusually sympathetic Baba the Turk."
Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph, June 2008
"...Bickley add(s) both experience and a touch of real class."
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, June 2008
"Susan Bickley's plate-smashing Baba the Turk - as magnificently upholstered in voice as in bosom - is the other dominant presence. Her surreal entrance through the flowerbeds, accompanied by dozens of prancing, bowler-hatted acolytes, has a touch of Pythonesque genius."
Richard Morisson, The Times, June 2008
Judith Weir recital, LSO St Lukes (with Iain Burnside)
"Susan Bickley's sensitivity and vocal allure confirming her among the finest mezzos of her generation…"
Richard Whitehouse, www.classicalsource.com, January 2008
Handel's Esther
London Handel Orchestra & Choir / cond. Laurence Cummings
"Bickley's singing of her three big solos has a serenity and clarity of utterance - eloquent of diction - which sets Handelian standards."
Hugh Canning, International Record Review, January 2008
"The performance, live from Handel's church, St George's Hanover Square, in 2002, is exceptional, with outstanding solo work from Susan Bickley (a raptly lyrical Mordecai)…"
Hugh Canning, Sunday Times, January 2008
Baba the Turk and Mother Goose in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress
CBSO / cond. Jac van Steen
"Susan Bickley was excellent as Mother Goose and the bearded Baba."
Paul Driver, Sunday Times, December 2007
Mistress Quickly in Verdi's Falstaff
Opera North / cond. Richard Farnes
"Susan Bickley makes a wonderfully obsequious Quickly."
Alfred Hickling, The Guardian , October 2007
Sara in Donizetti Roberto Devereux
Buxton Festival / cond. Andrew Greenwod / dir. Stephen Medcalf
"Buxton allowed itself luxury casting in Susan Bickley. ... Bickley not only irradiates her role with pathos and subdued passion; she performs regally. ...one of the best sung shows in the Festival's history."
Lynne Waker, The Independent, July 2007
Dido in Purcell Dido and Aeneas
Opera North / cond. Nicholas Kok / dir. Aletta Collins
"Faultless singing from Susan Bickley"
Anna Picard, The Independent on Sunday, May 2007
"Susan Bickley's stately and beautifully sung Dido… Dido's Lament, with which Bickley crowns a regal performance, itself was worth the price of admission."
Anthony Holden, The Observer, May 2007
"Susan Bickley gives a lovely performance as Dido, notable for some sensitive soft singing and unfailing musicality of phrasing. Her account of the Lament was all the more affecting for being so pure and restrained in style."
Rupert Christiansen, The Daily Telegraph, May 2007
"Susan Bickley gives a lovely performance as Dido, notable for some sensitive soft singing and unfailing musicality of phrasing. Her account of the Lament was all the more affecting for being so pure and restrained in style."
Rupert Christiansen, The Daily Telegraph, May 2007
"Susan Bickley's Dido combines maturity, dignity, voluptuousness and vulnerability - a class act."
Andrew Clark, Financial Times, May 2007
"In the main role, Susan Bickley brings enough variety of tone and sheer humanity to Dido to make her emotional plight the opera's central experience, charting a sure and certain course from fear of involvement, through anger at her betrayal, and on to the self-mourning of her great final lament."
George Hall, The Guardian, May 2007
"The star is Susan Bickley's Dido…She shapes and directs her full-beam mezzo to a tremendous, gut-wrenching climax. Hearing Bickley sing "death is now a welcome guest" is almost worth the price of a ticket."
Neil Fisher, The Times, May 2007
"The mezzo- soprano Susan Bickley makes a magnificent Queen Dido."
The Stage, May 2007
"But the opera was - it had to be - Susan Bickley's triumph, as Dido. What a great interpretation this was, with multiple levels of expression and superb vocal quality."
Manchester Evening News, June 2007
Brangäne in Wagner Tristan and Isolde
Welsh National Opera / cond. Mark Wigglesworth / dir. Yannis Kokkos
"Susan Bickley's eloquent Brangäne"
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph , October 2006
"From the outset the singing of Susan Bickley was enthralling, with Bickley's sculpting of the lyrical lines as intelligent as they were beautiful."
Rian Evans, The Guardian, October 2006
"The supporting cast is exemplary: Susan Bickley is an ardent Brangäne."
Neil Fisher, The Times, October 2006
Storgé in Handel Jephtha
Welsh National Opera / cond. Donald Nally / dir. Katie Mitchell
"Susan Bickley returned to give a compelling performance in the role of Storge."
Rian Evans, Opera, May 2006
Ludmila in Smetana The Bartered Bride
Royal Opera House / cond. Sir Charles Mackerras / dir. Francesca Zambello
“Ludmila is vividly cast, and sung with beautifully observed detail by Susan Bickley.”
Hilary Finch, The Times, January 2006
Sidonie von Grasenabb in Barry The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
English National Opera / cond. André de Ridder / dir. Richard Jones
“As Petra’s friend Sidonie, Bickley delivers a perfectly judged performance.”
Anna Picard, The Independent, September 2005
“Susan Bickley is strong as Petra’s friend, Sidonie.”
John Allison, The Sunday Telegraph, September 2005
Recital in the ‘Finzi Friends’ series in Ludlow
“Mezzo Susan Bickley entered right beneath the skin of Philips' vocal lines and the mixed loneliness, rapture and celebration of these universal texts, just as, with Burnside in keen-eared attendance, she brought life to Adrian Jack's 'Chinese Bossanova' and prised delights next day from two Scots poems, Soutar's The Plum Tree (set by Ronald Stevenson) and Hugh MacDiarmid's Milk-Wort and Bog-Cotton (set by Francis George Scott). And in Holst's Vac (hymn to the Vedic Juno or Queen of All), her declamation brought to mind Janet Baker: a Maria Stuarda or (conversely) a Gloriana in the making.”
Roderic Dunnett, Music and Vision, July 2005
Dejanira in Handel Hercules
The Sixteen / cond. Harry Christophers
“The tragedy is not so much Hercules’ as his wife Deianeira’s: from her first teeterings between foreboding and optimism, Bickley showed us a woman as mentally racked as Medea: her final, guiltridden outburst was scorching. Terrific power, matched by terrific pathos.”
Roderic Dunnett, The Independent, June 2005
Storgé in Handel Jephtha
English National Opera / cond. Nicholas Kramer / dir. Katie Mitchell
“His anxious wife Storgé is Susan Bickley, rich and moving beyond stylishness.”
David Murray, The Financial Times, May 2005
“Susan Bickley, whose mother’s rage is largely conveyed in silence, breaks your heart.”
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, May 2005
“Susan Bickley is also back as Jephtha’ wife; she was terrific in the histrionics of her nightmare scene, and her aria “In gentle murmurs will I mourn” to her preoccupied husband subtly evoked the poignancy of marital habit and regret.”
Peter Reed, The Sunday Telegraph, May 2005
Jezibaba in Dvorak Rusalka
Opera North
“Susan Bickley wickedly relishes her potions as Jezibaba.”
Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, October 2003
Berlioz Romeo and Juliet
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
“Mezzo Soprano Susan Bickley, tenor Jean-Paul Fouchecourt and baritone Alastair Miles gave excellent performances.”
James Allen, Daily Telegraph, September 2003
“The soloists, happily, were splendid: Susan Bickley was heartfelt in her opening strophes.”
Conrad Wilson, The Herald, September 2003
“Mezzo soprano Susan Bickley and baritone Alastair Miles gave hugely impressive performances.”
Kenneth Walton, The Scotsman, September 2003
Andromache in Tippett King Priam
BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC Proms)
“Susan Bickley was particularly fine as Andromache.”
Bayan Northcott, The Independent, July 2003
“Susan Bickley was a dignified and passionate Andromache.”
Ivan Hewitt, Daily Telegraph, July 2003
Storgé in Handel Jephtha
Welsh National Opera / cond. Paul McCreesh / dir. Katie Mitchell
“The aria where Jephtha's wife Storge sings of her desperate forebodings was a vivid example of the interpretative insight brought to the da capo arias: in its first appearance, Susan Bickley's eloquent evoking of the horror was carefully understated - a bad dream articulated in order to break its spell - but with the repeat came a hallucinatory quality.”
Rian Evans, Opera, July 2003
“The roster of principals is all trumps too – the mezzo Susan Bickley quite heart-seizing as Iphis’ mother.”
David Murray, Financial Times, May 2003
“What makes it work, besides emotional truth, are performances of scarifying immediacy. Susan Bickley, as Jephtha’s wife, is a magnificent picture of outraged motherhood, full of flayed horror as
she tells Jephtha “First perish thou! And perish all the world!”
Robert Thicknesse, The Times, May 2003
“Padmore, Bickley, Taylor and Tynan are heartbreaking.”
Anna Picard, The Independent, May 2003
“Susan Bickley as the distraught mother with terrifying dreams moves superbly and pierces the soul; fresh from her ENO Cassandra, her Storgé is up to the gills in tragic desolation. When she hurtles up Mortimer’s amazing cantilever staircase, Bickley encapsulates this whole sorry Old Testament mess.”
Roderic Dunnett, The Independent, May 2003
“Its success is thanks primarily to the most delectable Handel singing from the principles…Mark Padmore brings both compassion and dramatic force to the title role, with Susan Bickley’s Storgé and Christopher Purves’s Zebul equally expressive. Not a single da capo aria repeat grates.”
Rian Evans, The Guardian, May 2003
Cassandra in Berlioz The Trojans
English National Opera
“Bickley’s Cassandra is vocally superb, rich and powerful enough to put the men around her in the shade.”
Anthony Holden, The Observer, February 2003
“A brave, glorious performance by Susan Bickley, who shapes Berlioz’s arching vocal lines with astonishing beauty and power.”
Tim Ashley, The Guardian, January 2003
“This is her show – she holds the stage for the whole of Act I, a hugely committed portrayal of desperation, singing her heart out, clawing vainly at Priam’s shoulder, and getting a knockout jab from besuited FBI goons for her unpatriotic outbursts.”
Robert Thicknesse, The Times, January 2003
“She gives this great role everything she has got and presents a sterling and thoughtfully sung performance.”
Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph, January 2003
Romeo in Bellini I Capuletti e I Montecchi
Grange Park Opera
“At The Grange the sun shone, and Susan Bickley’s Romeo matched its radiance with a display of superb bel canto singing that few would have expected of this outstanding baroque and contemporary music ‘specialist’. Her close-to-immaculate Bellini demonstrated that she is the most versatile British mezzo before the public today.”
Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, June 2001
Irene in Handel Theodora
Scottish Chamber Orchestra / cond. Nicholas Kraemer
“The molten mezzo of Susan Bickley was not simply inspirational, but exquisite.”
Kenneth Walton, Scotsman, February 2001
Irene in Handel Theodora (DG Archiv recording)
Gabrieli Consort and Players / cond. Paul McCreesh
“Susan Bickley proves herself one of the finest mezzo-sopranos of her generation.”
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, November 2000
“The star of the set is undoubtedly the mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley as Irene. Her performance – heartstoppingly direct, seamlessly expressive, and perfectly even in tone – is a marvel in every respect.”
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, October 2000
“This beautiful new version of Theodora easily displaces all previous recordings…the best singing of all comes from Susan Bickley’s wondrously limpid Irene, who almost steals the show with her ravishing singing of “As With Rosy Steps the Morn”, “Defend Her, Heav’n”, and “New Scenes of Joy”. This is Handel singing in the Janet Baker class. Glorious.”
Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, October 2000
Ghost in Birtwistle The Last Supper
Glyndebourne Touring Opera
“Susan Bickley sang with incisive fire-power.”
Malcolm Hayes, The Sunday Telegraph, October 2000
“The part of Ghost (radiantly sung by Susan Bickley) is the kind of tour-de-force role that mezzos will fight over.”
Anna Picard, The Independent on Sunday, October 2000
“Susan Bickley took the part brilliantly.”
Paul Driver, The Sunday Times, October 2000
“A superlative cast. Susan Bickley is twice as intense as she was in Berlin, grasping the audience’s attention from her very first note and keeping it even when standing silently to one side.”
Rodney Milnes, The Guardian, October 2000
“Susan Bickley is outstanding as Ghost.”
Tim Ashley, The Guardian, October 2000
“Ghost, the only female voice (the formidable mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley), offered a radiant contrast.”
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, October 2000
Kostelnica in Janácek Jenufa
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
“Stepping into the role for the last three performances of the run, Susan Bickley made the part emphatically her own. From her first entry, Bickley cast a chill with her beady presence yet made it plain that there were many layers to this character: this was a woman whose own tragic history made the prospect of further disgrace unbearable, and her sometimes gentle facial expression made it impossible not to feel sympathy for her. She showed that there is absolutely no reason for a Kostelnica not to sing beautifully and with depth of feeling.”
John Allison, Opera, October 2000
Ghost in Birtwistle The Last Supper
Staatsoper Berlin
“It’s impossible to fault the musical performance. Susan Bickley (in the single female role of the Ghost, who represents us, the audience) sang Birtwistle’s recitative-arioso quite beautifully.”
Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, April 2000
“Susan Bickley as Ghost and Thomas Randle as Judas are outstanding. She is the pivot around which the whole work revolves, its conscience and its emotional heart.”
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, April 2000
Andromache in Tippett King Priam
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
“Susan Bickley was a passionate Andromache.”
Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Times, May 1999
Inanna/Mirror/Computer in Birtwistle Love Cries
BBC Symphony Orchestra
“Susan Bickley was splendid in the roles that tie everything together, Ianna, the Mirror and Computer, switching her mezzo from lyrical to clarion modes and into a disembodied voice for the sci-fi computer music.”
John Allison, The Times, May 1999
“Susan Bickley handled the patchwork of Inanna/Mirror/Computer with great poise and beautiful characterisation.”
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, May 1999
Juno in Handel Semele
English National Opera
“Susan Bickley’s Juno was another sterling performance.”
Michael Kennedy, Sunday Telegraph, April 1999
“Susan Bickley has a whale of a time impersonating the Queen and revelling in her vampish disguise as Semele’s sister as she plots her love rival’s downfall. Her singing is stylish and pointed, no more so than in her gleeful revenge aria, “Above Measure is the Pleasure”.
Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, April 1999
“Susan Bickley’s excellent Juno has a wicked touch of the Queen Mum.”
David Murray, Financial Times, April 1999
Protagonist in Turnage Twice Through the Heart
English National Opera
“The female Protagonist, a woman imprisoned for killing her violently abusive husband, is sung by Susan Bickley with such directness and command of Turnage’s achingly expressive melodies that the work takes on an extra dimension. It is a troubling and thought-provoking evening.”
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, October 1997
Title role in Handel Serse
Gabrieli Consort
“Susan Bickley in the title role had one wondering why we hear so little of her outside of the British Isles, and her voice projected evenly over a two-octave range in one of Handel’s more wide-ranging castrato roles.”
Joel Kasow, Opera, June 1997
Carolina in Henze Elegy for Young Lovers
London Sinfonietta
“The marvellous Susan Bickley, one of the most complete and rounded artists currently before the British concert- and opera-going public, conjured up in voice, stance, and facial expression alike a startlingly fully-fleshed portrait of the ill-treated Carolina.”
Max Loppert, Opera, June 1997
“Susan Bickley’s Carolina – Mittenhofer’s aristocratic patron and unpaid secretary – sang gloriously.”
Hugh Canning, March 1997
“The writing for Carolina, the poet’s long-suffering patron, is suffused with a Straussian warmth beautifully caught by Susan Bickley.”
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, March 1997